Somalia

The Parent Trigger Warriors of Watts: How a Special Forces Hero and a Group of Moms Took Back Weigand Elementary

A Hijacking Looks Inside a Ship Taken Over by Somali Pirates

Jeremy Scahill of the New Film Dirty Wars Talks About the Dangers of Covert Ops

Banadir Somali Restaurant: More Fun With Goat in Inglewood

At first glance, Banadir Somali Restaurant looks more like Somalian community center than a restaurant. White bars cover the shaded and tinted windows. The main entrance leads to a long hallway with a kitchen off to the left. You have to look around a bit before noticing a door that leads to the din ... More >>

10 Best Halal Dishes in Los Angeles

Los Angeles can, yet again, boast about having the most variety, if not depth, of something. Home to the most diverse Muslim population in the United States, Los Angeles County is full of halal restaurants. Halal means permitted or lawful according to Sharia (Islamic) laws. In the realm of dining ou ... More >>

Oscar-Nominated Shorts 2013: From a Simpsons Segment to a Woman Who Lives on the Ceiling

Seven L.A. Comics Report From the Edinburgh Festival Fringe

The Edinburgh Festival Fringe is a festival unlike any other. The 65-year-old whirlwind event lasts the entire month of August and is essentially a free-for-all: interested performers merely have to book their own venue, travel, and accommodation, then show up, self-promote like mad, and pray you ge ... More >>

The Exorcist at the Geffen Playhouse

Michael Scott Moore, L.A. Surfer/Journalist Writing a Book About Somali Pirates, Held Hostage by Somali Pirates

Manhattan Beach native Michael Scott Moore, behind awesome surfing novelSweetness and Blood: How Surfing Spread From Hawaii and California to the Rest of the World, With Some Unexpected Results, told The New York Times two summers ago that he had begun a full-length sophomore effort on Somali pirate ... More >>

Top 10 Street Art and Graffiti Stories of 2011

Shannon CottrellJR in L.A.​Yes, year-end lists. Not even street art is exempt. But hey, 2011 was a banner year for the Los Angeles street art and graffiti communities, as they enjoyed plenty of worldwide attention. LA Weekly put together the ten L.A.-related street art and graffiti stories th ... More >>

10 Cats Who Eat Better Than You: At The Santa Monica Cat Show

Gendy AlimurungWhat did your cat eat today?​ Does your cat eat better than you do? Some of these kitties at the recent Santa Monica Cat Show do. I asked their respective humans what is the fanciest, tastiest, nommiest thing they feed their cats. Keep reading to learn what they said, or 10 Cats ... More >>

Former L.A. Mayor Richard Riordan Hires 'Journalist of the Year' Patrick Range McDonald to Ghostwrite His Memoirs

PHOTO BY KEVIN SCANLONRichard Riordan​Bad news for LAUSD's underserved schoolchildren, good news for the dirty politicians of West Hollywood: Award-winning LA Weekly reporter Patrick Range McDonald will be taking the next six months off for a private commission. McDonald was approached by Ric ... More >>

Man Holds Woman Hostage in Whittier Library; Demands Pound of Kush, PlayStation, Ride From Mexican Army

Could I get that to go?​Something to think about: If you found yourself holding a pair of scissors to the throat of some terrified woman in the middle of the Whittier Public Library -- the world officially your oyster -- what would you ask for? Whatever your answer, 30-year-old Ignacio Gabr ... More >>

Louis Vuitton's Copyright Claim Against Artist Nadia Plesner Thrown Out by Dutch Court

​The Louis Vuitton logo has appeared on all kinds of ridiculous things, from Mexican bungalows to live pigs, but the luxury brand seemed particularly irked when its signature multi-colored design appeared on an Audra handbag carried by a starving Somali child. The re-appropriated design, whic ... More >>

Somali Pirates: America Started It!

​It's easy to characterize hijackin', ransomin' third-world pirates as old-fashioned Disney fiction. But the Los Angeles Times, who apparently has some speed-dials in dangerous waters, proves -- in today's "Deaths of Americans at hands of Somali pirates a troubling escalation in violence, exp ... More >>

Jean and Scott Adam, SoCal Missionaries on Global Yacht Tour, Taken Hostage by Somali Pirates, Dragged Back to Lair

svquest.comJean and Scott Adam, L.A.'s gutsiest missionaries, hand out Bibles in the Cook Islands​Update: Jean and Scott Adam were fatally shot on their boat by pirates, authorities said today -- even as U.S. Navy ships trailed the vessel. Two pirates were then killed and 13 were captured, acc ... More >>

Brick's Picks: LOOKS LIKE A HAPPENING

ACLU Adds New Names In Their Lawsuit Against U.S. Government Challenging Their Policy Of Detaining Immigrants Indefinitely Without A Hearing

​The American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California announced Tuesday that they're adding new plaintiffs to its lawsuit against the U.S. government, challenging the government's right to hold immigrants indefinitely while they wait for their cases to be heard in immigration hearings. T ... More >>

Movie Reviews: Mugabe and the White African, Peepli Live, Animal Kingdom

Also, Eat, Pray, Love, Mundo Alas, Tales From Earthsea

"Weather" — or Not?

Bulletin: 'Maersk Alabama' Crew Member Tells of Pirate Ordeal

In an exclusive scoop, the Village Voice has obtained and published an e-mail from a crew member of the Maersk Alabama, written about its seizure by pirates last week. From the Village Voice's description:"The crewmember tells friends that by the time the pirates had commandeered the bridge, the chi ... More >>

Laws of Sympathy

Maybe We're Amazed: Notes on the Fairly Odd Coachella 2009 Lineup

Our only hope — that Macca gets Ram tough

Yo Ho Ho! A Pirate's Christmas

Night Out: Man's Spiritual Journey Begins With Prada

Of man scents and caviar

Brick's Picks: Beautiful Scenes

Jazz bakery cooks, Back Room closes

Whirled Music

Nawal whips African, Arabic and Indian sounds into Brazilian-tinged jazz

Leni Riefenstahl: Pretty as a Swastika

The sieve of time, or what Leni did

Top of the Bop

Brick's jazz picks

Orange Crush

The execution of Theo Van Gogh

9/11 and Iraq War as Shtick

The misdeeds of Convoluted Rice and Uncurious George are no joke

Ask Mr. Gold

Weapons of Mass Compliance

Now at a tech lab near you, agony-inducing tools that will control your disorderly tendencies and blast those riotous urges

Fascinating Fascism

Watching Big Brother

Volunteers monitor round two of Ashcroft’s “special registration” program

Letters

The Eyes of Perpetual War

James Nachtwey has spent a lifetime on the frontlines of the world’s worst calamities. Here, the photojournalist talks about the burden of documenting war, famine, poverty and human-rights abuses.

Waiting for the World

Back to the future with the World Federalists

The Back Story

A Reading List

Let’s Roll!

A hot-war president for a cold-war nation

Pure War

In the Mood for Wong Kar-wai

The year’s best films

Where to Now?

Coming battles in the War on Terror

The Back Story

A week 11 reading list

Unsteady War-Footing

Reexamining the U.S. failure to prepare for the battle against terror

The Left Responds: Fear and Hope

The Lost People

Photographer James Nachtwey captures the horror

INS-Style Justice

Plea bargains approved, but future remains unclear for the El Centro Five

The Last Roll Call

The cop funeral as civic pageant

Memorial

To war reporters and Chasen's chili